we are to have a college, but what kind of a college it shall 

 be. Shall it be worthy of Massachusetts, and rank with 

 her other institutions of learning, education, and science ? 

 Shall it have a vital relation to her farms and farmers, and be 

 felt by them as a power ? She can do a great service to her- 

 self and the country, and give the prestige of success to a 

 cause of national importance, by furnishing the example of an 

 efficient agricultural college of the best stamp. The governor 

 of the Commonwealth, whose mind is always open to the best 

 thought of his time, and two successive legislatures, intelli- 

 gent and devoted to the good of the state, have taken up this 

 work with earnestness and zeal. This unanimous official ac- 

 tion indicates a sympathy with the undertaking on the part of 

 the community at large that is most hopeful and significant. 

 The people welcome an institution that is to open new paths 

 to skilled and instructed industry. The stimulation of the 

 educational system of the state greatly multiplies the number 

 of those who crave a sphere in which disciplined faculties can 

 find appropriate exercise. The young men that annually go 

 out from your high schools, eagerly seek employments which 

 call for the intellectual activity required in the application of 

 systematic knowledge. They ask for vocations vitalized with 

 the life of principles, and with unsatisfied hearts put on the 

 harness of a calling that stagnates in routine. Very much of 

 the highest and best instructed talent of the country, which 

 was formerly absorbed by the three professions and by states- 

 manship, is devoted to the arts, the management of business 

 and productive industry. And these employments furnish 

 scope for such talent. To organize some of these great in- 

 dustrial establishments, to wield the enormous masses of cap- 

 ital embarked in them, to build railroads, to direct the ventures 

 of a large commerce, and with success, requires the grasp and 

 vigor of mind that would be equal to the administration 

 of. In occupations of this class, but on a smaller scale, 

 educated and instructed intellect finds congenial activity and 

 liberal rewards. There are farms and farmers on them in our 



